Ella
by Klediments
Summary: The story of what happens
1. Ella, Chapter 01

Ella Lorena Kennedy was seven years old when her life was turned upside down. For the most part, it hadn't been a very exciting life - perhaps more so when she was a baby, but everything interesting seemed to happen before she was born. Her half-brother, Wade was born during the War Between the States, but she was born over a year after Lee's surrender. But Ella had never known any of the hunger and strife her mother and brother had gone through during those lean years. No, she had not been brought up poor - materially, that is, though she had always lacked a feeling of love and warmth around her. Ella was not even two years old when mother quickly remarried, to the wealthy Rhett Butler, but even if Scarlett had not married one of the richest men in Georgia, Ella would still have been brought up comfortably with the money brought in from her father's store. Money was very important to Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler; Ella knew that from a tender age, and she had been told more than once that she would always have her own money and would never have to degrade and ruin herself in order to procure it as Scarlett had done years earlier.  
  
But all the financial stability in the world could not have comforted Ella in November of 1873. Not much earlier, her half-sister, Bonnie had been killed when she was thrown from a horse. Ella had always been skittish around animals, and she now was sure that for this there was a good reason. Then, not long after Bonnie, Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, the woman Ella had grown up calling "Aunt Melly" died as well. Ella had loved Melanie, in some ways, more than she did Scarlett, for Melanie was always kind and loving, and nobody ever felt as if they had to walk on eggshells around her. And finally, Rhett - the only father Ella had ever known - was gone, inexplicably and without warning. Now, with Melanie gone, there was nowhere for Ella and Wade to go. They were trapped like animals in the fine house on Peachtree Street with their mother, who also didn't seem quite human. A miserable week after Melanie's funeral, which a shaken Scarlett had attended alone, she barged into the children's nursery. She was twisting a handkerchief in her hands, perhaps to hide the fact that they were shaking, Ella mused, and she was unable to keep still, moving frantically about the room.  
  
"Children, we're leaving," she announced in a voice that was an icy whisper. As she wove through the toys that were scattered about the room, her long black skirts swished behind her and she walked through an assembly of blocks that Ella was arranging to make a dollhouse. Bonnie had had a dollhouse that Ella used, but all of Bonnie's things were gone from the nursery.  
  
"Where are we going, Mother?" Wade asked, looking up from the trains he was too old to play with. It was the kind of sensible question neither Scarlett nor Ella would have had the presence of mind to voice.  
  
"Home - to Tara." Scarlett's green eyes flashed about the room, from one child to the other. There should have been two more faces staring back up at her, but that wasn't something she could think about now.  
  
Wade nodded; he had spent more time at Tara than Ella had, who disliked the short time she had spent there when Scarlett was ill. It had been a long time she spent waiting for her mother to recuperate, and the house was not the fabled plantation of Scarlett's past, but a run-down farm overrun by Suellen's children, who seemed to take after their mother in their dispositions.  
  
"Prissy ought to be packing your things now; we are leaving tomorrow on the 7:30 train to Jonesboro." Scarlett twisted the handkerchief about in her hands again, and she stared out the window at the incessant rain, before adding, "I don't want any fuss or trouble from either of you, you hear me?"  
  
"Yes, Mother," Wade said. Scarlett left, and then he turned to Ella. "You heard Mother, no fuss or trouble."  
  
*  
  
Ella was bathed and put to bed early that evening, as was her brother. Prissy woke them equally early the next morning and the scant family sat down at the breakfast table in front of a light breakfast that nobody touched. Half an hour before they departed for the station, Scarlett ordered to see both of the children, to inspect their appearances. Wade was looked up and down and sent on his way, while Ella received a scolding.  
  
"Your hair's a fright," Scarlett complained irritably and sat her daughter down at the dressing table. She winced as her mother yanked the long, auburn locks into two tight braids that she tied with black ribbon to match Ella's dull mourning dress. "That's better. You and your brother wait downstairs for me - be ready by seven, I tell you. I'll be down shortly. And don't make any noise, either. I've a headache and I don't want you making it any worse."  
  
Ella nodded, went down the long staircase, and perched herself on a trunk by the front door. She knew what caused her mother's headaches; she was young but not stupid. Scarlett drank a goodly portion of brandy every night from the decanter in the front parlor, a fact which Ella had commented on to her brother, only to be told that it was none of her business what their mother did. What Ella did not comment on, however, was that she heard Scarlett crying every night - crying and cursing Rhett and even Melanie. The night before, Ella had even heard her mother trip and fall, knocking something over that broke, but that morning, there was no evidence of a broken vase, or anything signifying trouble. Even though she knew Wade would only tell her to hush, Ella did not mention these events to her brother because she knew he heard them too.  
  
Ella waited, watching the huge grandfather clock. If her mother did not hurry, they would be late and miss the train to Jonesboro. Ella would not have minded not going to Tara, but she knew that Scarlett would have a fit. But at exactly seven o'clock, Scarlett descended the staircase, looking imperious. She was dressed in a high-necked, long-sleeved dress. It was black, of course, but was adorned with a little black lace and a trim of jet beads, and over her arm was a wrap of black sable. Though her face was shielded by the veil on her black velvet hat, Ella could see a hint of a smile as her mother tugged on her black kid gloves.  
  
"Come children," she said in a stronger voice than either child had heard all week, "We're going to Tara." 


	2. Ella, Chapter 02

The ride to Jonesboro was quiet, and Ella at first believed that she was mistaken at her mother's show of happiness earlier in the day, for Scarlett was silent except to scold Ella or to tell Wade to sit up straight. They ate a lunch of cold chicken and biscuits that the cook had prepared, but even during the meal, conversation was non-existent. Scarlett removed her hat with the veil, and Ella could see her mother's green eyes. They were not unlike her own, Ella thought to herself, although Scarlett always insisted that her eldest daughter took after Frank Kennedy in every way. That wouldn't be true, Ella decided. Though she loved the father she never knew, she could not bear to be as mild and complacent and as much of a doormat as she had heard he had been. Nor would she take after her mother, the child promised, contradicting herself, for she did not want to lead the lonely life Scarlett was living. Perhaps she would be her own person, she thought, and not take after either of her parents. But that was impossible, starting with the unfortunate mix of green eyes and ginger hair.  
  
"Don't you children complain about your uncle Will's rig," Scarlett warned at the Jonesboro depot as they waited for Will Benteen to pick them up. "He's too much of a fool to take what he's entitled to, and insists on bumping around in that heap of termite feed he calls a carriage."  
  
Ella liked Will, as did Wade, and neither child would have even thought of complaining about the carriage. But they said nothing about the chiding to their mother and sat complacently as they waited for Will to arrive. Scarlett, on the other had, was not nearly as calm as her offspring, and fiddled nervously with the strings on her purse the same way she had with the rumpled handkerchief. Though Ella was young, she knew how important Tara was to her mother, and she was disappointed that Scarlett was not calmer and more placid so near to her home.  
  
The three had only been waiting about five minutes for Will to arrive, but it seemed to be an eternity. He was dressed in his second-best suit of clothes, and removed his hat at the sight of his sister-in-law. "Howdy, Scarlett," he said, alighting from the carriage. "You look - well, you look just fine."  
  
"I'm a wreck, Will. Don't play games with me," Scarlett said without her usual harshness.  
  
Ella could not blame her uncle for being somewhat taken aback at her mother's appearance, for Scarlett had grown thin and brittle, and the sharp black color she had resigned herself to wearing made her skin look not magnolia blossom white, but more of an unhealthy pallor. But Will said no more and greeted the children before he helped Scarlett into the carriage. Wade and Ella hopped in the back and said nothing, only listening to Will and Scarlett's conversation as they began the ride to Tara.  
  
*  
  
Ella never had thought much of Tara, for it was past its prime when she first visited it in the spring of that same year, but the house seemed even more run-down now that it was early winter. There was no bright green foliage to mask the house's flaws, and the exterior Ella knew to be white seemed gray. Everything here was gray, for there were none of the bright colors of Atlanta to contrast the dull skies and their rain clouds. It had already begun to drizzle as Will pulled up in front of Tara, but that did not stop old Mammy from waddling onto the veranda to welcome the weary travelers.  
  
"Miz Scarlett, m'lamb," she cooed at the sight of Scarlett, who was gently being helped out of the carriage. Scarlett was drawn to the heavyset black woman and fell into her embrace.  
  
"Oh Mammy, Mammy..." Scarlett moaned softly into Mammy's shoulder as the party made their way inside. "Everything's a mess... Rhett's gone..."  
  
"Hush, chile," Mammy whispered. "You doan want da chillen to hear ya, now does ya?"  
  
"No, no I don't," Scarlett mumbled as if she were a child herself. "Mammy, you'll take them upstairs, won't you?"  
  
Mammy nodded and took Ella and Wade's hands in her own and led them upstairs. Ella was disappointed, for while she didn't like to hear the upsetting things her mother said, she would rather hear them than not know at all what was going on. And so once Mammy had left to fetch the children cookies and milk, Ella scrambled to the top of the stairs where she could hear her mother and her uncle Will perfectly.  
  
"Will, I just wish you'd let me put some money into this place," Scarlett was saying. "A third of its mine, after all."  
  
"And a third of it belongs to the Catholic Church too, but they ain't here, Scarlett," Will said in his usual calm tone. "And neither are you, but I am."  
  
"I'm here now, Will. This is my home as much as it is yours - more, in fact."  
  
"This was your home, Scarlett, but you ain't really lived here for nigh on eight years. You've visited, but visitin' ain't the same as livin' someplace."  
  
Ella could hear Scarlett sigh, and the sound of an armchair creaking as she sat down. "Will, please. I don't feel right not helping to make this the place it should have been."  
  
"The South's a different place than it was before the war. Cotton ain't king anymore, and I can't think of much use for making this place into a shrine to what used to be."  
  
Will's words were biting and Ella didn't want to hear anymore. She crept back to the room she shared with Wade - the room that used to be Careen's - and toyed with her braids until Mammy returned. She announced that since dinner would be served in only another half hour, the children could wait until then to eat. They did, and sat nervously across from one another at the long table. Suellen, who was expecting another baby soon and had been napping until shortly before the meal, occupied Ellen's place at the table, though Will was contented to sit along the side. Meanwhile, Scarlett's place was set where Gerald's had been ten years before. She knew this was Mammy's doing, but said nothing and bowed her head as Will led the family in grace. 


End file.
